In March, the Australian Chief Plant Protection Officer (ACPPO) Dr Gabrielle Vivian-Smith participated in the 19th Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM-19) in Rome, leading the Australian delegation including Dr Sophie Peterson and Ms Lauren Madden.
As part of the broader South-West Pacific delegation with colleagues from the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the regional Secretariat, the key purpose was advocating for our region's interests in global collaboration to secure safe movement of plants and plant products while protecting plant health through biosecurity.
The CPM is a key annual forum for protecting global plant health, and this year several key topics were discussed including the safe provision of humanitarian aid, One Health, sea container biosecurity, and how international standards could be made less complex and more readily accessed and implemented into the future.
With around 400 delegates in attendance, from contracting parties to International Plant Protection Convention members and observers, the CPM is an important avenue for collaboration to promote global plant health and advancing implementation of and compliance with phytosanitary standards.
Also during the week, the IPPC’s Plant Health Campus, provided through the FAO e-learning Academy was launched, which offers free online e-learning courses on a number of topics, with more in development.
Agreement on International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) is key to ensuring that all countries have a common understanding and follow the same benchmarks to safely trade plant products and protect primary plant production, food security and the environment. These standards facilitate economic and trade development and aim to protect sustainable agriculture and enhance global food security while also protecting the environment, forests and biodiversity.
The ISPMs adopted by CPM-19 included the first Commodity Standard annex for the international movement of mango fruit, and an annex describing a system approach for the international movement of wood. Once translated, these adopted ISPMs will be available from Adopted Standards (ISPMs) - International Plant Protection Convention (ippc.int).
During the session, the CPM also approved the development of an international standard on the issue of safe aid. This is a tremendous achievement of the Pacific region who have championed this issue for a number of years given our region’s vulnerability to increasing natural disasters, and the ‘Focus Group on provision of safe food and other humanitarian aid’.
Demonstrating the importance that contracting parties place on the work of the IPPC community, Australia (through the ACPPO), Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Korea pledged combined contributions totalling USD$1.8 million to support global efforts to protect plants.
